AOHR Reiterates its Appeal to the International Community to Support the Egyptian and Tunisian Governments to Manage the Flows of Refugees

Cairo 10 March 2011     The Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) reiterates its appeal for the international community to provide the necessary and needed support for the Tunisian and Egyptian Governments to deal with the continuous flows of refugees escaping the current ongoing fight in Libya.
                The AOHR expresses its deep concern at the inaction of the international community to provide this assistance which has became necessary following the decrease in the number of refugees being evacuated from Tunis.
                  According to AOHR field sources in Ras Jadder and Jerjes, the migration crisis has increased and more people continue to flee.
About 20,000 persons fled to Ras Jadder.
This number is more than the capacity of the camp, in spite of the fact that the number of new refugees has decreased from an average of 10,000 persons a day to an average of 3,000 persons a day.
    The AOHR welcomes the initiative of the United Arab Emirates to build an additional camp to contain about 5,000 refugees.
Nevertheless, AOHR asserts that the crisis is still ongoing due to delays in evacuating refugees, particularly those from South Asia and Africa.
                The attempts of some refugees to stay in Tunisia to work or to stay as refugees has aggravated the crisis.
Tunisia has suffered an economic  setback which has weakened its ability to accommodate and to meet the emergency needs of refugees.
  The AOHR draws attention to a similar situation in Egypt.
Although the authorities have been able to handle emergency situations, they still need support to meet emergency needs and to restore the economy under the crisis situation in Egypt * * * For more information please contact: Alaa Shalaby Executive Director – Member, Board of Trustees Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) 91 Merghani St.
, Heliopolis, Cairo 11341 Egypt Tel +202 24181396 Fax +202 24185346 Mobile +2 010 6488987 Ala.
shalaby@hotmail.
com – Aladinchalabi@yahoo.
com www.
aohr.
net